Long term memory and vocabulary retention
I read that when learning the vocabulary of a new language it works best to re-practice a set of words one month after initially practicing them. The rationale behind this is that many of the words may not become committed to long term memory when originally learned -- they were never fully retained beyond short term memory. For some reason this one month interval facilitates the brain's storage of those new words into long term memory.
So perhaps it would be wise to regularly consult your personal log of all flashcard sets completed and plan followup visits to those same sets one month later?
Does anybody have confirmation or commentary regarding this idea?
11 Answers
Hello,
I agree with this theory completely. I'm learning Korean at the moment, and I have found that taking a break from learning vocab and even grammar is very helpful. Also, we tell our students: "Give yourself a chance to forget. In the long term it will help you remember" 
. It works very well with them. But, we work with weekly intervals as well as monthly intervals (depending on the person's general retention ability).
Good luck with your studies
To be honest, I think I have been doing this subconsciously throughout my time learning Spanish. I'm not too good with things like flashcards because unless I use a word in context it just seems meaningless. But what I try to do is use words / phrases in sentences (such as 'word of the day' threads here) that I first discovered days, weeks or even months ago. I find I tend to start to then get a feeling for how/when words should be used.
This helps my understand of Spanish structure, grammar and sentence construction, but I am aware that I really need to build up my general Spanish vocabulary. I am trying to do this by listening much more. I find children's cartoons excellent for this. Again I watch them over and over without putting pressure on myself to remember words. I think my kids are starting to doubt my sanity though lol!
There is a saying "if you don't use it you will loose it", so yes it is probably a good idea to go back over the words you have learnt a month aback.
More importantly though is trying to use your new vocabulary in conversational or written practice. That is probably the best way to retain your vocabulary.
I agree with this theory completely. [. . .], and I have found that taking a break from learning vocab and even grammar is very helpful. Also, we tell our students: "Give yourself a chance to forget. In the long term it will help you remember" smile. It works very well with them. But, we work with weekly intervals as well as monthly intervals (depending on the person's general retention ability).
Totally agree, as well. So that makes at least three of us.
"Give yourself a chance to forget?"
Wow. What a great concept. I could not possibly agree more, and I would add to that, "and don't kick yourself around about it if you do forget. "
Just go back to the source of the words or phrases you think you've forgotten (flashcard set or whatever) and run them again. All of them.
It's one of the beauties of this website that the flashcard sets, your own and everyone else's, can remain easily accessible for just this kind of review.
Thanks for the hint, I am running into the same issue as you. I have noticed that I can manager very well the exams following the flashcard study, but just a few days later, I still have issues.
What would be interesting would be some recall function of any words in all the previous lessons completed so far with 20 questions taken randomly on all of those. That would force us to revise... Suggestion for improvements to this wonderful web site.
I think that anything that can help facilitate the retention of a vocabulary is
worthy of examination and trial , in my case I feel that a month would be
too long an interval therefore I shall start doing it at on a weekly basis ,
and then try to extend the time . Thank you so much for the suggestion .
Thanks. This is a great idea. I am definitely going to try this suggestion. It is really great to practice similar flashcard sets as much as possible, too.
The length of the time intervals and the number of repetitions vary greatly between individuals, as well as with age for a given individual.
Somewhere I heard, that if you use a word seven times, it is yours. So I make it a point to use the words that I learn (in context) and I believe that plants words into long term memory. And of course, use the language, I think that helps to retain a whole lot of words.
Thanks for the tip, that could help prevent wasting time with flashcards. I remember drilling ordinal numbers and I would forget unless I use the words or read them. That is why I learn vocabulary casually. I have found that I remember more when I am curious to know how to say something and I look it up as opposed to when I do flashcard drills.
Simply wow! it makes sense. Will I can't answer your question. I going to try this hypothesis out!
!Que bueno! Es mas claro. No es possible da una respuesta pero voy a intentar este hipótesis.
Edit: It seems so obvious but only once you wrote did I realize such a idea existed. I will do a experiment to find out the answer.
Thanks for tips. I totally agree with you all. I love the saying (really wise) "Give yourself a chance to forget. In the long term it will help you remember". So putting to much pressure on oneself may have detrimental effect instead.
I’ve also heard about a revising schedule - after a day, then after a week, a month, and after a year, but generally it’s a variation of what you’ve already said.
I’m glad you posted the topic, because I think it’s very useful to understand how our memory works.
Our memory also consists of passive and active memory.
Passive memory is when given hints you can recall some info. But normally you wouldn’t be able to come up with that knowledge by yourself, to use it. For example multiple choice tests only check passive memory. In case of vocabulary – you may understand a word in a text, you remember you learnt it but you can’t use it – normally you don’t remember it.
Active memory is the one that has practical meaning, is the knowledge you’re aware you know hence you can recall it when needed. So we should try to put as much possible into the active memory and we’re doing it by practicing, speaking, writing, anything that requires creative thinking. Learning a list of vocabulary by heart is not enough, we have to test our knowledge in practice.
